The Schoolhouse Opening Monday in Duluth

On Monday, Aug. 8, a dream seven years in the making will come to life as The Schoolhouse Preschool Academy, located at 2466 Buford Highway between Rogers Bridge Road and Sugarloaf Parkway, opens its doors to the Duluth community. The Schoolhouse offers a special preschool learning environment that invites children ages 1-4 to explore their sense of wonder while fostering learning, challenge and choice.

The Schoolhouse offers preschoolers “An Ivy League Beginning,” according to Director Angilla Jones. “Without question the Ivy League schools set the bar in higher education. Our goal here is to raise the bar in preschool education, offering the same level of ‘Ivy League” quality and commitment to learning,” Jones said. “We go far beyond childcare here.”

“It’s during these formative years that our children will establish their understanding of education, develop their learning habits, learn to take pride in their ideas and their work, and learn to be critical thinkers and seekers of answers for a lifetime. We are here to offer a very unique learning environment for preschoolers like this community has never seen.”

Jones has had a passion for young children since she was 9 years old and accepted her first babysitting job. After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Howard University, Jones launched her first career in finance. As an executive at General Electric, Jones gleaned wisdom and knowledge about business management and leadership under GE CEO Jack Welch.

Through the years Jones began to dream about developing a school that allowed for a new way of thinking, teaching and learning that would prepare children to become the next generation of leaders and thinkers. Jones traveled across the United States and abroad, taking notes on best practices in preschool education, and refining her vision for The Schoolhouse. To equip herself with the training she needed, Jones went back to school and earned a master’s degree in early childhood education from Capella University as well as a Montessori diploma.

The Schoolhouse has a progressive approach to education inspired by Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory, the Reggio Emilia Approach and the Montessori model. The learning environment is small by design but includes age-specific classrooms, indoor play and reading areas and an outdoor art studio, sandbox, stage, and play area.

The school will accept an enrollment of only 60 students, offering exceptional student/teacher ratios of 1-to-6 for 1 to 2-year-olds and 1-to-9 for 3 to 4-year-olds. The Schoolhouse’s culture is steeped in family and community collaboration, offering lots of hands-on-learning driven by the children’s inquiry. Instructionally, teachers are given the flexibility to teach in the moment while being very purposeful and focused on key learning milestones.

Tuition rates range from $855 to $1,155 per month depending upon the length of the child’s learning day with a 5 percent discount for additional siblings enrolled. Applications are now being accepted, and the annual registration fee of $175 is currently being waived for children enrolling before the end of August. Families are invited to schedule a private tour of The Schoolhouse Preschool Academy by calling 404-421-6713.  To learn more, visit www.theschoolhouse.com.